Gas prices to soar in SoCal due to refinery outages

Get ready to pay a lot more to fill up your tank. Fuel experts say the pain at the pump may get worse this week.

At a Mobile station in North Hollywood Wednesday morning, regular was at $4.89 a gallon and supreme was at $4.99 a gallon.

The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area was $4.26, a 6-cent hike from Tuesday; Orange County was at $4.24, also a 6-cent hike; Inland Empire was at $4.21, a 5-cent hike; and Ventura was at $4.24, also a 5-cent hike. These prices were from the Auto Club of Southern California.

According to fuel analysts, we could see a jump of 10 to 30 cents a gallon in a matter of days.

What's causing this price spike? The problem is low production blamed on several oil refinery outages due to the extreme heat and continuing problems from an oil refinery fire in Northern California this summer.

As a result, wholesale prices have jumped nearly 73 cents a gallon over the last week. Experts predict that stations are about to pass on that cost to California drivers this week, and there's nothing drivers can do about it.

To make matters worse, AAA says this price hike only affects the Golden State. Things won't turn around until the oil production in California picks back up.

AAA says regular unleaded is 35 cents higher than this time last year.